Despite its foundational role in the history of philosophy, Plato's famous argument that art does not have access to truth or knowledge is now rarely examined, in part because recent philosophers ...
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Despite its foundational role in the history of philosophy, Plato's famous argument that art does not have access to truth or knowledge is now rarely examined, in part because recent philosophers have assumed that Plato’s challenge was resolved long ago. This book argues that Plato has in fact never been satisfactorily answered—and to demonstrate that, it offers a comprehensive account of Plato’s influence through nearly the whole history of Western aesthetics. The book offers a reading of the post-Platonic aesthetic tradition as a series of responses to Plato’s position, examining a diversity of thinkers and ideas. It visits Aristotle’s Poetics, the medieval Christians, Kant’s Critique of Judgment, Hegel’s phenomenology, Marxism, social realism, Heidegger, and many other works and thinkers, ending with a powerful synthesis that lands on four central aesthetic arguments that philosophers have debated.Less

Art and Truth after Plato

Tom Rockmore

Published in print: 2013-06-12

Despite its foundational role in the history of philosophy, Plato's famous argument that art does not have access to truth or knowledge is now rarely examined, in part because recent philosophers have assumed that Plato’s challenge was resolved long ago. This book argues that Plato has in fact never been satisfactorily answered—and to demonstrate that, it offers a comprehensive account of Plato’s influence through nearly the whole history of Western aesthetics. The book offers a reading of the post-Platonic aesthetic tradition as a series of responses to Plato’s position, examining a diversity of thinkers and ideas. It visits Aristotle’s Poetics, the medieval Christians, Kant’s Critique of Judgment, Hegel’s phenomenology, Marxism, social realism, Heidegger, and many other works and thinkers, ending with a powerful synthesis that lands on four central aesthetic arguments that philosophers have debated.

If collective remembrance is as old as human communal existence and the age-old practices that forge its cohesion, theoretical preoccupation with the phenomenon of collective memory is relatively ...
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If collective remembrance is as old as human communal existence and the age-old practices that forge its cohesion, theoretical preoccupation with the phenomenon of collective memory is relatively recent. The present book accounts for this paradox through interpretation of the novel function accorded to collective memory which, in a modern context of discontinuity and dislocation, reoccupies the space that has been left vacant by the decline of traditional assumptions concerning human socio-political identity. In this situation, where memory is widely called upon as a source of collective cohesion, this book aims to elaborate a philosophical basis for the concept of collective memory and to delimit its scope in relation to the historical past. Extensive analysis is devoted to the complex modes of symbolic configuration of collective memory in the public sphere. These modes of symbolic configuration have undergone radical transformation over the past century that is both reflected and engendered by the new technologies of mass communication by virtue of their capacity to simulate direct experience and remembrance through the image. Such transformations make increasingly palpable the limited scope of collective memory, rooted in a rapidly changing context, in the face of an historical past beyond its pale. The growing awareness of these limits, however, and of the opacity of the historical past, need not fuel historical skepticism: as the novels of Walter Scott, Marcel Proust and W. J. Sebald serve to illustrate, it may place in evidence subtle nuances of temporal context that are emblematic of historical reality.Less

Collective Memory and the Historical Past

Jeffrey Andrew Barash

Published in print: 2016-11-28

If collective remembrance is as old as human communal existence and the age-old practices that forge its cohesion, theoretical preoccupation with the phenomenon of collective memory is relatively recent. The present book accounts for this paradox through interpretation of the novel function accorded to collective memory which, in a modern context of discontinuity and dislocation, reoccupies the space that has been left vacant by the decline of traditional assumptions concerning human socio-political identity. In this situation, where memory is widely called upon as a source of collective cohesion, this book aims to elaborate a philosophical basis for the concept of collective memory and to delimit its scope in relation to the historical past. Extensive analysis is devoted to the complex modes of symbolic configuration of collective memory in the public sphere. These modes of symbolic configuration have undergone radical transformation over the past century that is both reflected and engendered by the new technologies of mass communication by virtue of their capacity to simulate direct experience and remembrance through the image. Such transformations make increasingly palpable the limited scope of collective memory, rooted in a rapidly changing context, in the face of an historical past beyond its pale. The growing awareness of these limits, however, and of the opacity of the historical past, need not fuel historical skepticism: as the novels of Walter Scott, Marcel Proust and W. J. Sebald serve to illustrate, it may place in evidence subtle nuances of temporal context that are emblematic of historical reality.

“Rhetoric is the counterpart of logic,” claimed Aristotle. “Rhetoric is the first part of logic rightly understood,” Martin Heidegger concurred. “Rhetoric is the universal form of human ...
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“Rhetoric is the counterpart of logic,” claimed Aristotle. “Rhetoric is the first part of logic rightly understood,” Martin Heidegger concurred. “Rhetoric is the universal form of human communication,” opined Hans-Georg Gadamer. However, this book offers a new conception of rhetoric, one that builds a definitive case for an understanding of the discipline as a philosophical enterprise beyond basic argumentation and which is fully conversant with the advances of the New Rhetoric of Chaim Perelman and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca. Chapter by chapter, it develops an understanding of rhetoric not only in its philosophical dimension but also as a means of guiding and conducting conflicts, achieving justice, and understanding the human condition. Along the way, the book restores the traditional dignity and importance of the discipline and illuminates the twentieth-century resurgence of rhetoric among philosophers, as well as the role that rhetoric can play in future discussions of ontology, epistemology, and ethics. At a time when the fields of philosophy and rhetoric have diverged, it returns them to their common moorings and shows us a new way forward.Less

Deep Rhetoric : Philosophy, Reason, Violence, Justice, Wisdom

James Crosswhite

Published in print: 2013-04-01

“Rhetoric is the counterpart of logic,” claimed Aristotle. “Rhetoric is the first part of logic rightly understood,” Martin Heidegger concurred. “Rhetoric is the universal form of human communication,” opined Hans-Georg Gadamer. However, this book offers a new conception of rhetoric, one that builds a definitive case for an understanding of the discipline as a philosophical enterprise beyond basic argumentation and which is fully conversant with the advances of the New Rhetoric of Chaim Perelman and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca. Chapter by chapter, it develops an understanding of rhetoric not only in its philosophical dimension but also as a means of guiding and conducting conflicts, achieving justice, and understanding the human condition. Along the way, the book restores the traditional dignity and importance of the discipline and illuminates the twentieth-century resurgence of rhetoric among philosophers, as well as the role that rhetoric can play in future discussions of ontology, epistemology, and ethics. At a time when the fields of philosophy and rhetoric have diverged, it returns them to their common moorings and shows us a new way forward.

This volume uses phenomenological and hermeneutical tools to look at “distressed bodies” – including the experiences and treatment of sick patients, prisoners, and animals. These groups are ...
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This volume uses phenomenological and hermeneutical tools to look at “distressed bodies” – including the experiences and treatment of sick patients, prisoners, and animals. These groups are challenged both by processes from within (the sick body) and outside (social exclusion and objectification). The book draws on literary examples such as Sophocles’ Philoctetes, the author’s own struggles with chronic pain, and clinical and philosophical sources, to understand the many ways illness can shatter one’s life world. This leads to a critical and visionary re-examination of treatment modalities, such as our fetishized fascination with pills, and potential uses of touch and healing objects/environments in medicine. Along the way, clinical diagnosis and bioethical reflection are also rethought. Real-world predicaments generate “texts” embedded in complex “contexts” which often remain unexamined. For example, organ transplantation as practiced reflects Cartesian and capitalist modes of objectifying the body. Yet lived bodies intertwine from birth to death, and beyond—this can lead to a new ways of understanding and performing organ transplants. Similarly, capitalist and Cartesian models shape our harsh treatment of animal-bodies and prisoners in a way that demands re-vision. The book challenges our contemporary factory farms and penitentiaries. Yet in chapters co-written with prisoners we also see how imprisonment can evoke strategies of resistance and redemption, and even close relations with animals as the two shunned groups assist each other. The book ends with a focus on such human-animal “shape-shifting.” Attending to distressed bodies thus leads to a radical re-envisioning of medical, criminal justice, and environmental practices.Less

The Distressed Body : Rethinking Illness, Imprisonment, and Healing

Drew Leder

Published in print: 2016-10-17

This volume uses phenomenological and hermeneutical tools to look at “distressed bodies” – including the experiences and treatment of sick patients, prisoners, and animals. These groups are challenged both by processes from within (the sick body) and outside (social exclusion and objectification). The book draws on literary examples such as Sophocles’ Philoctetes, the author’s own struggles with chronic pain, and clinical and philosophical sources, to understand the many ways illness can shatter one’s life world. This leads to a critical and visionary re-examination of treatment modalities, such as our fetishized fascination with pills, and potential uses of touch and healing objects/environments in medicine. Along the way, clinical diagnosis and bioethical reflection are also rethought. Real-world predicaments generate “texts” embedded in complex “contexts” which often remain unexamined. For example, organ transplantation as practiced reflects Cartesian and capitalist modes of objectifying the body. Yet lived bodies intertwine from birth to death, and beyond—this can lead to a new ways of understanding and performing organ transplants. Similarly, capitalist and Cartesian models shape our harsh treatment of animal-bodies and prisoners in a way that demands re-vision. The book challenges our contemporary factory farms and penitentiaries. Yet in chapters co-written with prisoners we also see how imprisonment can evoke strategies of resistance and redemption, and even close relations with animals as the two shunned groups assist each other. The book ends with a focus on such human-animal “shape-shifting.” Attending to distressed bodies thus leads to a radical re-envisioning of medical, criminal justice, and environmental practices.

German Idealism as Constructivism is Tom Rockmore’s statement on the debate about German idealism between proponents of representationalism and those of constructivism that still plagues our grasp of ...
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German Idealism as Constructivism is Tom Rockmore’s statement on the debate about German idealism between proponents of representationalism and those of constructivism that still plagues our grasp of the history of German idealism and the whole epistemological project today. Rockmore argues that German idealism—which includes iconic thinkers such as Kant, Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel—can best be understood as a constructivist project, one that asserts that we cannot know the mind-independent world as it is but only our own mental construction of it. Since ancient Greece philosophers have tried to know the world in itself, an effort that Kant believed had failed. His alternative strategy—which came to be known as the Copernican revolution—was that the world as we experience and know it depends on the mind. Rockmore shows that this project was central to Kant’s critical philosophy and the later German idealists who would follow him. He traces the different ways philosophers like Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel formulated their own versions of constructivism. Rockmore offers an analysis of a crucial part of the legacy of German idealism.Less

German Idealism as Constructivism

Tom Rockmore

Published in print: 2016-05-03

German Idealism as Constructivism is Tom Rockmore’s statement on the debate about German idealism between proponents of representationalism and those of constructivism that still plagues our grasp of the history of German idealism and the whole epistemological project today. Rockmore argues that German idealism—which includes iconic thinkers such as Kant, Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel—can best be understood as a constructivist project, one that asserts that we cannot know the mind-independent world as it is but only our own mental construction of it. Since ancient Greece philosophers have tried to know the world in itself, an effort that Kant believed had failed. His alternative strategy—which came to be known as the Copernican revolution—was that the world as we experience and know it depends on the mind. Rockmore shows that this project was central to Kant’s critical philosophy and the later German idealists who would follow him. He traces the different ways philosophers like Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel formulated their own versions of constructivism. Rockmore offers an analysis of a crucial part of the legacy of German idealism.

This book is about understanding and coping with exceptionally difficult problems that stand in the way of living as we think we should. Living that way depends on pursuing possibilities that ...
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This book is about understanding and coping with exceptionally difficult problems that stand in the way of living as we think we should. Living that way depends on pursuing possibilities that unavoidably conflict in our evaluative framework. We must evaluate them and that requires deciding what our priorities should be. Such decisions are very difficult because we value the conflicting possibilities and have strong reasons both for and against them. By opting for one, we must opt against the conflicting one we also value. The problems of life are difficult because by saying yes to a possibility we reasonably value, we must say no to a conflicting possibility we also reasonably value. A deeper understanding shows that life without loss is impossible and conflicts between possibilities are unavoidable parts of life so long as we are committed to the economic, legal, moral, personal, political, and religious modes of evaluation of our evaluative framework. Essential to coping with such problems is a comparative approach to understanding and evaluating the available possibilities. Each chapter considers an anthropological, historical, or literary case in order to illuminate a particular problem in our evaluative framework by comparing it with another that is very different indeed. The point is not to criticize or justify either, but to understand better our possibilities and problems, and to come to see that the available possibilities are much richer than we commonly suppose. We enrich our understanding of the possibilities of life by learning from how others live.Less

Human Predicaments : And What to Do about Them

John Kekes

Published in print: 2016-06-22

This book is about understanding and coping with exceptionally difficult problems that stand in the way of living as we think we should. Living that way depends on pursuing possibilities that unavoidably conflict in our evaluative framework. We must evaluate them and that requires deciding what our priorities should be. Such decisions are very difficult because we value the conflicting possibilities and have strong reasons both for and against them. By opting for one, we must opt against the conflicting one we also value. The problems of life are difficult because by saying yes to a possibility we reasonably value, we must say no to a conflicting possibility we also reasonably value. A deeper understanding shows that life without loss is impossible and conflicts between possibilities are unavoidable parts of life so long as we are committed to the economic, legal, moral, personal, political, and religious modes of evaluation of our evaluative framework. Essential to coping with such problems is a comparative approach to understanding and evaluating the available possibilities. Each chapter considers an anthropological, historical, or literary case in order to illuminate a particular problem in our evaluative framework by comparing it with another that is very different indeed. The point is not to criticize or justify either, but to understand better our possibilities and problems, and to come to see that the available possibilities are much richer than we commonly suppose. We enrich our understanding of the possibilities of life by learning from how others live.

Although Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel considered Science of Logic essential to his philosophy, it has received scant commentary compared with the other three books he published in his lifetime. This ...
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Although Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel considered Science of Logic essential to his philosophy, it has received scant commentary compared with the other three books he published in his lifetime. This book rescues Science of Logic from obscurity, arguing that its neglect is responsible for contemporary philosophy’s fracture into many different and opposed schools of thought. Through careful analysis, the book sheds new light on the precise problems that animate Hegel’s overlooked book and their tremendous significance to philosophical conceptions of logic and reason. The book’s overarching question is how, if at all, rationalism can overcome the split between monism and dualism. Monism—which claims a singular essence for all things—ultimately leads to nihilism, while dualism, which claims multiple, irreducible essences, leads to what the book calls “the endless chatter of the history of philosophy.” Science of Logic, the book argues, is the fundamental text to offer a new conception of rationalism that might overcome this philosophical split. Leading readers through Hegel’s book from beginning to end, the book’s argument culminates in a masterful chapter on the Idea in Hegel.Less

The Idea of Hegel's "Science of Logic"

Stanley Rosen

Published in print: 2013-11-15

Although Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel considered Science of Logic essential to his philosophy, it has received scant commentary compared with the other three books he published in his lifetime. This book rescues Science of Logic from obscurity, arguing that its neglect is responsible for contemporary philosophy’s fracture into many different and opposed schools of thought. Through careful analysis, the book sheds new light on the precise problems that animate Hegel’s overlooked book and their tremendous significance to philosophical conceptions of logic and reason. The book’s overarching question is how, if at all, rationalism can overcome the split between monism and dualism. Monism—which claims a singular essence for all things—ultimately leads to nihilism, while dualism, which claims multiple, irreducible essences, leads to what the book calls “the endless chatter of the history of philosophy.” Science of Logic, the book argues, is the fundamental text to offer a new conception of rationalism that might overcome this philosophical split. Leading readers through Hegel’s book from beginning to end, the book’s argument culminates in a masterful chapter on the Idea in Hegel.

I distinguish here between work on historical figures in philosophy as a form of history and as philosophy, and I defend a conception of the latter. The second and related point takes up the ...
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I distinguish here between work on historical figures in philosophy as a form of history and as philosophy, and I defend a conception of the latter. The second and related point takes up the implications of the unusual “success conditions” there might be for philosophy. That is, there can be no general, methodologically secure way to know when a defense of a philosophical position has been successful. The implication drawn is that the engagement with interlocutors and critics is a necessary and unavoidable condition of some satisfaction that one might have made more sense then before one’s attempt. Philosophy is thus essentially and not incidentally dialogic. Every philosophical position must start out as a proffer; it “lives” (remains a live possibility, attracts attention, criticism, defense) or is animated, only in such inter-animated exchanges. The book that follows explores instances of such interanimation.Less

Interanimations : Receiving Modern German Philosophy

Robert B. Pippin

Published in print: 2015-07-27

I distinguish here between work on historical figures in philosophy as a form of history and as philosophy, and I defend a conception of the latter. The second and related point takes up the implications of the unusual “success conditions” there might be for philosophy. That is, there can be no general, methodologically secure way to know when a defense of a philosophical position has been successful. The implication drawn is that the engagement with interlocutors and critics is a necessary and unavoidable condition of some satisfaction that one might have made more sense then before one’s attempt. Philosophy is thus essentially and not incidentally dialogic. Every philosophical position must start out as a proffer; it “lives” (remains a live possibility, attracts attention, criticism, defense) or is animated, only in such inter-animated exchanges. The book that follows explores instances of such interanimation.

Nietzsche’s Earth articulates the sense of his call to be “true to the earth,” exploring its political dimensions. Triangulating Nietzsche between the nineteenth century European world of competing ...
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Nietzsche’s Earth articulates the sense of his call to be “true to the earth,” exploring its political dimensions. Triangulating Nietzsche between the nineteenth century European world of competing nation states and the changed landscape of more recent times, it argues that this thinker speaks to contemporary themes and questions such as globalization, the so-called end of history, sovereign assumption of emergency powers through states of exception, and the composition of the decisive political body of a diverse, nomadic, and hybrid multitude. The book explores the contrast between two modes of political time: that of the “last humans,” measured out and securitized by debt and insurance, another involving openness to futurity where “philosophers of the future” may vigilantly seize unique opportunities. These discussions put Nietzsche in dialogue with more recent philosophers of the event, including Deleuze, Derrida, Agamben, and Badiou. The study examines Nietzsche’s sketch of a political geoaesthetics of the anthropocene, elucidating Thus Spoke Zarathustra’s celebration of a garden earth. Nietzsche’s Earth concludes by demonstrating that his “philosophy of the Antichrist” should be understood not merely as a challenge to Christian belief but as an immanent critique of traditional political theology, linking the death of God to the fragility of the state. The book constructs a running dialogue between Nietzsche and those thinkers of his time and ours who see the earth through the lenses of a totalizing world-history, on a more or less Hegelian model, involving a hierarchical system of nation-states and an inescapable teleological narrative.Less

Nietzsche's Earth : Great Events, Great Politics

Gary Shapiro

Published in print: 2016-09-09

Nietzsche’s Earth articulates the sense of his call to be “true to the earth,” exploring its political dimensions. Triangulating Nietzsche between the nineteenth century European world of competing nation states and the changed landscape of more recent times, it argues that this thinker speaks to contemporary themes and questions such as globalization, the so-called end of history, sovereign assumption of emergency powers through states of exception, and the composition of the decisive political body of a diverse, nomadic, and hybrid multitude. The book explores the contrast between two modes of political time: that of the “last humans,” measured out and securitized by debt and insurance, another involving openness to futurity where “philosophers of the future” may vigilantly seize unique opportunities. These discussions put Nietzsche in dialogue with more recent philosophers of the event, including Deleuze, Derrida, Agamben, and Badiou. The study examines Nietzsche’s sketch of a political geoaesthetics of the anthropocene, elucidating Thus Spoke Zarathustra’s celebration of a garden earth. Nietzsche’s Earth concludes by demonstrating that his “philosophy of the Antichrist” should be understood not merely as a challenge to Christian belief but as an immanent critique of traditional political theology, linking the death of God to the fragility of the state. The book constructs a running dialogue between Nietzsche and those thinkers of his time and ours who see the earth through the lenses of a totalizing world-history, on a more or less Hegelian model, involving a hierarchical system of nation-states and an inescapable teleological narrative.

Life is short. This indisputable fact of existence has driven human ingenuity since antiquity, whether through efforts to lengthen our lives with medicine or shorten the amount of time we spend on ...
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Life is short. This indisputable fact of existence has driven human ingenuity since antiquity, whether through efforts to lengthen our lives with medicine or shorten the amount of time we spend on work using technology. Alongside this struggle to manage the pressure of life's ultimate deadline, human perception of the passage and effects of time has also changed. This book examines a range of material—from Hippocrates to Run Lola Run—to put forth a new conception of time and its limits that, unlike older models, is firmly grounded in human experience. The author's analysis of the roots of the word time connects it to the temples of the skull, demonstrating that humans first experienced time in the beating of their pulses. Tracing this corporeal perception of time across literary, religious, and philosophical works, the author concludes that time functions as a kind of sixth sense—the crucial sense that enables the other five. The book is a meditation on life's inexorable brevity.Less

On Borrowed Time : The Art and Economy of Living with Deadlines

Harald Weinrich

Published in print: 2008-12-01

Life is short. This indisputable fact of existence has driven human ingenuity since antiquity, whether through efforts to lengthen our lives with medicine or shorten the amount of time we spend on work using technology. Alongside this struggle to manage the pressure of life's ultimate deadline, human perception of the passage and effects of time has also changed. This book examines a range of material—from Hippocrates to Run Lola Run—to put forth a new conception of time and its limits that, unlike older models, is firmly grounded in human experience. The author's analysis of the roots of the word time connects it to the temples of the skull, demonstrating that humans first experienced time in the beating of their pulses. Tracing this corporeal perception of time across literary, religious, and philosophical works, the author concludes that time functions as a kind of sixth sense—the crucial sense that enables the other five. The book is a meditation on life's inexorable brevity.

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